Did you feel that nip in the air before it hit 78 degrees? Are your sweaters making their way back into rotation? Or maybe you’re beginning to envision your ultra-niche concept costume that only real fans will get. (Don’t steal my idea, but I’m going as the bear from Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepytime tea.) Conditions call for some spooky shindigs and eerie affairs, so here are 13 killer Halloween events in San Diego.

In the bohemian pocket of Ocean Beach, Kyle Rising, the 27-year-old lead singer of rock/reggae group Sensi Trails, uploads a video performing a solo cover of the legendary The Doors song “People Are Strange.” Almost overnight, it receives 11 million views. Thousands of comments label Rising the reincarnation of The Doors frontman Jim Morrison.

How pharmacist turned Wall Street investor Jason Wild took a shot in dark by investing in medical cannabis and ended up making millions

Baking in the sun is one of our favorite pastimes here in San Diego. Find your favorite sol spot and watch your stress melt away while you enjoy a natural and organic vitamin D mood booster. Bright and warm like the city, Humboldt Family Farms maintains the same energy up North in the Emerald Triangle with a cannabis cultivation process that leads with sun-grown production and legacy farming.

Cannabis legislation has come a long way since its initial breakthrough in 1996 when California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana through the Compassionate Use Act. Within two decades, 38 states followed suit where some have legalized it recreationally. While it is a state issue now, a pressing issue of how cannabis should be regulated and by who continues to trend and spark activism for federal legislation.

Jack of all trades, female-empowerer, and owner of a San Diego local cannabis retailer JM Balbuena who got her start in the industry not long after Prop. 64 passed. JM opened her wellness brand and dispensary, Jaxx Cannabis, as a medical operation, and here she breaks down what it’s like to acquire a legal license in a county that wants to scrub cannabis culture from its image.

California has had its cannabis market up and running since the ‘70s. Being illegal, it wasn’t as polished as it is today, with fancy dispensaries and government oversight. However, it’s still the largest trade in the country. This week, for episode five of The Plant Lady, we are transported across the US to the East Coast—where legalization has taken a much different path.

Up until recently, cannabis had a pretty rough reputation. It wasn’t until California legalized medical marijuana in 1996 that its image transformation began in earnest, rebranding the plant from a so-called hippie drug to a more respected substance taken seriously in the medical community. At the forefront of this shift was Dr. Michelle Sexton—a naturopathic doctor (N.D.), professor, and researcher who has studied the use of cannabis to treat disease and disorder for more than a decade.

Founders of the NorCal-based Emerald Cup get ready for their 19th annual award show and discuss aiding small farmers in a competitive market.

After years of working toward his request for clemency, being a hair away from freedom, and watching his presidential pardon fall through the cracks post-inauguration in 2021, the last known federal medical cannabis offender in California walked out of a Mississippi FCI prison on compassionate release this February.

On the debut episode of The Plant Lady, San Diego Magazine managing editor and longtime cannabis reporter Jackie Bryant sits down with the former NFL running back to chat about the newest developments with Highsman—a clever play on words that nods to sports lingo as well as cannabis. It’s also a quick flex on his Heisman trophy win during his days the Texas Longhorns.

The culinary supergroup’s director of education and development shares the secret ingredients that made it what it is today.

How a San Diego beer writer, a famous actor, and George Clooney’s stand-in crafted the medal-winning Batch 22

Jennifer Carruthers is one hell of a sharp brain on wine. Not surprising. She had a successful career as an engineer before deciding she was far more interested in the structure and story of a good wine. So she spent a decade studying wine as a broker and distributor—eventually making it to the Advanced Sommelier level (an incredibly Byzantine, difficult and rare knowledge of wine).

Octopus can be daunting. Unlike the chicken or beef you probably have hanging out in your freezer at any given moment, it’s a rare ingredient on most American’s grocery lists. (Also, chickens don’t have tentacles.) Prepared skillfully, octopus is buttery, tender, even lightly sweet. Cook it wrong, and you’ve got rubber with suckers—which is why we usually leave it to the professionals to get it right.

All due respect to Dry January, it’s “Pinkies Up” month on HHH. And we’re starting out with a view into Mexican spirits from one of San Diego’s top minds on the matter—Gaston Martinez, owner of Izo Spirits, who makes top-notch tequila, mezcal, sotol, and bacanora. Nowadays it seems as soon as you become the lead actor in a major film, you’re granted your own tequila brand. Tequila’s come a long, long way. But tequila is just the gateway spirit into the charms of Mexico.

On this week’s episode of Happy Half Hour, Troy and David talk to one San Diegan whose life was altered pretty radically when Stefani de Palma visited his farm stand. His plot of land in Escondido—Sage Hill Ranch Gardens—was fairly small, three acres. But De Palma—then chef de cuisine of Addison—saw the promise. She worked with Spencer, used his farm as a sort of R&D plot for the restaurant.